Thing Are Different Now

I started to write this post in my Journalism class one day —the naughty boy I was, for I was supposed to be working on something else— and have not touched it since.  That was possibly back in October or November, and the note you see below seems to be foreshadowing what I my life has turned into now:

Odd feeling, shh, Journalism.
Starting something new, a different feeling in the air.  I don't know.
The reason I've been away, got too tied up in schoolwark, too sucked in.  Wanted to escape, but couldn't.  Had ambitions to return in the summer, but those were squashed with my job.
Started this, my last year in highschool, with high hopes, was very ambitious.  Then I hit a brick wall, could not make any progress in my life, was forced to turn inward and gaze upon myself

And when I finally did make the decision to turn inward and reflect upon my life up until this point, I was shaken by certain realizations that forced me to reshape the way I thought about myself and about my plans for the future.  My conscience chose to do so very quickly, so I had no other choice but to try to keep up.

I struggled with trying to come to terms with it all and I feel that it had almost cost me my life because of it.  It was a sink or swim battle that I could not afford to loose and I had to choose whether or not I was to fight, and stand a chance at living, or if I was to just let myself work deeper and deeper into my sorrow and let myself die.  I chose to fight.

That is the meaning behind the "starting of something new" and the essence of a "different feeling in the air."  I had to find some other direction to take my life in than that of the grave, and dwelling on my struggles wasn't going to help me achieve this at all.  So, I needed, very desperately, to find something else to distract me from my woes and draw attention away from my current situation.  I had all this extra energy bottled up inside of me, and instead of unleashing the front of it on myself, I decided that the better option for me was to  put down the knife and to ignore my procrastination in picking up the camera instead.

My new focus in life has become my YouTube channel and my hope is that it will prevent me from entering that state of depression and fear once again.

Otters Stuffed in Onion Suits Hate Math Equations

So, I've been feeling pretty down on my luck this week. Oh, and no, its not anything serious, everything was good up until just now.  You see, we started speeches, and its not that I hate them, because I don't, it's just that they're very stressful that's all.  I have a bad history with speeches; I never really was very good at public speaking at any point in my life until just recently, but now that I have gotten much better about making conversation with people in general, I am still tainted with the residue of years past.

Back in grade eight I wrote a speech for my language arts class about the history of Nintendo, and ended up turning what should have been a four to five minute speech into a fourteen minute speech.  Not fun.  I don't think that my middle-school language arts teacher (who is actually my vice principal now) or me will ever forget.  It was three months over-due and I squirmed in my seat every day in class that was the date I was supposed to present.  My friends never did get to here about that one, eh?

I presented my speech after school that year to him alone, and because it was so long I missed my bus and he offered me a ride home.  I was quiet almost the whole way, and it was not surprising because my parents always told me to never hitch a ride with anyone you don't know, and to me, I only knew that he taught me.  He was a teacher, and there was nothing more I could say.

I guess that through trying to avoid a repeat of grade eight I have just brought on another downfall.  I stayed home today, and today I was supposed to present.  Rats.  I find that I do that with a lot of different subjects this year.  I've improved so much from where I was in middle school with handling schoolwork, that I try and make an effort to show it off.  Reveal to the teachers just how much better I am at getting things in on time.  But it sometimes makes me lie to myself, thinking that I could actually handle it all by myself.  Working myself past twelve o'clock just to reach a due date is not my idea of having fun.  I just break down.  Get disjoint and out of place.  It's not healthy.

But I am better.  I know my limits, and am picking up the ques well.  I know when I've had enough, and I've had enough.

As you can tell from my doodles, my other courses have suffered from the particular interest I'm dumping into English.  In the past week I've gone from knowing everything that's going on in math to not having a clue what the teacher is talking about.  Imaginary Numbers?  Come again?

Through all of this though, I haven't given up on you, my dear viewers.  I've been doing the odd sketch and photo here and there to help me keep sane.  I am sane and I am going to school tomorrow too.

(If you don't recognize this  little guy, then I suggest that you go take a look at my deviantART cute monster's design challenge t-shirt right away!  I would make me feel a lot better...)

I've been thinking about making him my blogger mascot, so I really worked with him this week trying to draw him from all sorts of different angles.  These aren't even half of the angles I tried to make him fit into!  It's pretty tough, but skill building I guess.  I still haven't even decided on a name yet.  (Plue or Pooshmoo?  How about Plue the Pooshmoon?  Eh, what do I know...)

I had to post something to feel like I got something accomplished today... {Sigh}

Who'm I Foolin' ?

Okay, I admit it! I am stressed! Though, for a good reason...
    Just in case you don't know, here in New Brunswick, we write our end-of-semester exams after Christmas instead of before, like the rest of the entire planet does.  And, as most teens do, I am stressing over it... along with everything else in life.

    You know, its funny, really, how everything else that always seems to make sense just doesn't when you've got something else on your mind.  Then again, maybe its just me, but during exams common sense stuff just doesn't seem to apply to me or to anyone else I know.  Things like wasting time on the computer instead of studying seem to occur a lot more often than they should.  (Hmm, gah! I suppose I'm doing that right know...) Wait, what was I going to say...?  See! There I go again!  Can't hold a single thought in my head for more than a minute for the life of me.  But, yeah. As you can tell, I'm stressed! 

    The truth is, I've studied so much over the past three weeks, that I don't even know what I have left to cover, and, unlike a test, there is no exact limit that you can go to say that you know absolutely everything about a subject, there's just not!  I mean, you're trying to study a whole five months worth of work in just a couple of nights!  There's just no way that you can know it all!  Not even for a smart kid, and I'm one of them.  {heh heh...} So, I think the most healthiest thing for me to do is to just stop.  Stop whatever unit it is I'm reviewing and breath, because in order to obtain sanity, that's just what I have to do.

    It took me a while (up until yesterday) to come to that conclusion, but now I can say it with confidence. "I'm not failing, so I don't care!" {more like I'm far from failing, so this shouldn't even be an issue.} But, I've said it none the less.
    The only really conflicting thing that happens when doing this is that I tend to feel guilty about it, real guilty!  So guilty that I can't enjoy myself, even when I'm doing something I love, and thus find myself worming my way back to the textbooks for another bought of studying. (so unfair!)  I guess that's kind of a tragic flaw for me.  I'm really a nice guy, but my brain always seems to want to shower me in false guilt.  None of this is was ever my fault.  I just wish I could see that.

    I sure make it hard on myself though, don't I?  Normally, I'm the most preppy guy in my class, however, exams seem to transform me...

    I've forgotten to shower, I've neglected to shave, I've worried and sweated so much that I've got pimples forming in the most peculiar of places (like in my ears!), my socks don't match, my shoelaces are undone, but, meh... it's normal for a teenager to respond in that way.

    Exams are like drugs, aren't they?  Now, I know that's a semi-stupid inquiry, especially coming from my mouth, but when you really stop to think about it, the results from an overdose of a Mathematics exam are similar in comparison with those viewed in patients in rehab for Methamphetamine... har har!

    "I'll call it examocede! It's sure to be big with the nerds on the street! ($_$)"  Just Kidding!
But seriously, who would buy it anyway? Not me!!!  That's for sure... {I'm already suffering enough from Exam-Solicititis to do me until June.} Ah, June... when I have to write exams, yet again!  

    I think that the only thing that kept me from going clinically insane this past few weeks was my ability to socialize with students who were going through the same thing.  I haven't abandoned my friends or my social life through all of this, I actually have come to strengthen those routs a little, and think that it is a trend I want to continue even when the exams are through.  You know, people aren't that bad?  (Well, most of them anyway.)
    My situation is not unique; I am a teenager, and it is exams.

    I spent eight hours the other day at school writing two exams, and that's without any breaks, too. "Urgh!" I was wiped completely out by the time I was finished.
    The two exams I wrote were Math: Circular Geometry & Statistics and Healthy Living & Nutrition (yeah, that's a course.)  It took an extra hour to complete my morning exam than almost everybody else in my class, and I had to rush right to the culinary classroom to write my nutrition exam as soon as I was finished.  I didn't even have time to eat lunch with everyone else!


    When I first got into the Culinary Lab I was like, "Um, so yeah... I didn't have my lunch yet?"  and my teacher was like,
    "Yeah? Well neither did I," she was stuffing her face full of strawberries and running to help another student as she was saying this.  I noticed this mockingly through my hunger pangs.
    "Well, can I-?"
    "Go quick!" She allotted me enough time to go to my locker and get me my lunch.  I ate it while writing my exam.
    Eating pulled pork on a bun while everyone else is busy working is a real test of your self esteem.

    After school, I spoke to a grade twelve student who had done the same thing.  Not eating pulled pork on a bun, mind you, but working for eight hours straight and not having enough time to eat lunch, only she had been working so hard that she had totally forgotten about it.  Her reaction was like, "Lunch? OMG!  That's why I'm so hungry! I forgot to eat lunch!" I guess I'm not the only person whose beginning to lose it then, hmm?  She leaped up off the bench almost immediately after saying this and came back a minute or two later with a bottle of 'Powerade' in one hand and a bag of salted pretzels in the other.  "Not the healthiest lunch," she said, "but it'll have to do."  We laughed.

    Oddly enough, through all this pain and suffering, I've gained a sense of unity with the world.
    If anything, I've learned what it's like to live life as a normal teenager, not one who is used to obeying rules and doing things in a mannerly or poised way, which is how I naturally am.  It's not bad to every now and again to get a healthy reminder of what its like to be a child who doesn't give a hoot!  You know, not that I'd want to be that way every day of my life, but it doesn't hurt to test the waters. (Although, this time I think I did a nose-dive!)
___
This post is crammed with images made specifically with this post in mind.  I suspect that this is a trend I will continue in the future!  I hope that it is received well by the web.  I'll just have to wait and see... (Makes for good practice, though!)  
Enjoy!

"I guess not..."

That rainbow lied.  It told me that it was going to be a good week, and it lied.
Well, for the first part of the week, it was right; my days were grand!  But for the second part of the week, not so...
You see, I had a huge project to do on Napoleon Bonaparte that week, and I really seemed to let the workload get to me.  My judgement of the situation was off, and I didn't assess things properly.  This stress felt as though it was fueling something in me, perhaps it was my determination to get things done, but it overcame reality and blinded me from seeing the truth.  I had convinced myself of that project being the most important thing in the world for me to have done, and nothing else seemed to even matter.

As this happened though, I began to blame myself for the things that happened around me, and then,  I started to accuse the things around me for causing my own personal troubles.
I even started to blame the 3DS for lowering my level of productivity, yet, how can a machine ever know the difference anyhow?  "I'm sorry 3DS... (sobbed)" :)

Anyhow, I was really lost with that one assignment, and really wanted to please my teacher by having it handed in on time; it had been two years since I had her as a teacher, and I really wanted to show her how much I had grown, but that decision ending up costing me a whole lot of other problems in the end.  I went all out that one Thursday night, neglecting to do any of my other schoolwork, and maxing out on history and running on very little sleep from the night before.  BAD DECISION.  I became to tired to finish it, and had a Healthy Living & Nutrition test the next day that I was suppose to have studied for, but hadn't because it was too much for me to take in that late at night.  I had failed...

So, here I was, trapped in my own little hole I dug for myself.  What could I possibly do to get myself out of this predicament?  I wrote a letter; one to my history teacher.  Without knowing where or how to start, I wrote a letter that seemed to derive from the deepest parts of my mind where the answers to all life's toughest questions lay.  As I wrote, I seemed to pore the words out.  I didn't think, I just typed; typing without thought.  And in the end, I had written down the equation and solution for all my homework problems!  It was long, very long.  The computer's clock was reading 2am by the time I was finished, but I was happy the moment that I hit send.  I knew what it was I needed to do now to prevent that sort of thing from happening again.

I stayed home the next day, needless to say.  But, I awoke with a much different attitude towards life.  I noticed the puffs of fog whisking up the side of my house, and decided to go out walking in the mist, seeking the simple beauty and quietness of the world.  It felt good; everything was nice and swell.  I felt better~
---

These posts were first thought up a month ago, and I feel like I'm jumping all over the place with them, but it felt good to let them out.  It is pretty neat though, to go back and look at how my mood warped and changed within the context of a couple of weeks.  I am really finding this to be a very defining year in my life, and I am witnessing changes in myself and in my level of comfort and attitude towards certain things, that I could only have hoped to achieved when I thought about them last year.
This will be the last post in the series I did on Procrastination, Schoolwork, and my 3DS and from now on my focus is going to shift to more import things that may interest you,
Such as:
My Comic (Knights of Mamus'sa), the various Sketches and Artwork that I do, and simple tales from my life in general.

[No more sob-stories, I PROMISE!!!!!]

As I was reviewing my last post, I noticed that the paragraph stating the fact that I am making an effort to tighten the belt on on my blog posts to be a lie, and thus I feel the need to reword that to you:
"I am not bringing an end to all lengthy posts, I am trying to eliminate the amount of wordy posts I make."
There, that feels more correct. (My last post was just as long as any other post I made, so it kind of was defeating the purpose of having mentioned that.) But, there is a strong difference between a longer post and one that is wordy.

Oh, I almost forgot! I got my first comment this weekend! ^-^ ~"Yays!"
Here is what it says: 

Anonymous said...

very interesting content. Keep up the good work!

18 November, 2011 1:24 AM

I also feel really bad for not having posted anything about my comic for the last little bit, so I just felt it was right to give you guys this to feast on:

Her name is Éneil (That's 'Ay-NEE-ul' with a French e accent aigu, or just 'Awn-yell & EE-neel' if you're English and don't like pronouncing things any other way.) :p  You are going to see her first introduced in my little legend/prologue thing I am doing now, and her importance will become much greater as the main story progresses and evolves.  

Good news! (not that you'd really care, but...) I started learning some German this week! Wanna' hear...?  Oh, yeah, forgot... Ahh, the limitations of my currant blog are so grand~  It just means that I have that to look forward to in the future- I mean, with my YouTube and all.  That is, if I actually do get to make it to YouTube? Which I know I will.  All in good time, Len, all in good time.

Previous

Procrastination Sets-In

       So, for the past three weeks I had no part of my comic ready for me to work on. Bad Plan. Very bad plan!  I have come to realize that the only real reason that I have actually managed to survive my third year of high school was that I had something else to tie me down.  I need to have something else that I am striding to achieve, otherwise my academical goals take over, and become the only thing that I can seem to focus on.  For some people, that seems just fine! (Good grades are important! What is there to be complaining about?!)  Well, since you don't know me, you wouldn't know just how unhealthy it is for me to do that, and how much time I would spend on academic work outside of school if you'd let me.
       IT WAS HORRIBLE, absolutely terrible, how much I neglected all that was important to me.  It was to the point where that dreading feeling form middle school and earlier high school came creeping back on me.  The dreading feeling I am talking about is the feeling I get when I know that there is something that I need to do, but can't seem to come past the fact that the mere thought of it makes me sick.  You see, up until the second semester of last year, I had a homework problem.  Yes, a homework problem, and a serious one at that.  I just couldn't seem to shake it; it was bread into me through habit, and there didn't seem to be any chances for escape.  I was scared, horrified that the amount of stress involved with things at school this year would finally come to consume me, and that there would be no end to the amount of nights I would spend at home wishing for some strange phenomena or an act of god to close school for me the next day.

       In reality, I knew that would never happen.  So if I wanted something to be done about it, I knew that I would have to take things into my own hands!  I needed to be the one, independently and unquestionably in charge of my life, and so this summer I made that my main initiative: To make things better for my final two years of high school, and to kick start my life!  Yet, these past to weeks have become a slip-up.  They almost brought me to a complete halt as far as life goes, and it was to the point where it made me sick!
       Test after test was bringing me down.  I thought that because I had made it into October, that I had the whole groove of grade 11 down pat... but I guess not.  It wasn't like there was any extra work at the start of this little bout, it was only that I had nothing to work on in the evenings besides homework, and thus found myself wasting time on the computer or overexerting myself on little projects and things that really didn't need half of as much effort.  But then the real trouble came the following week, when I found myself up to my armpits in novel studies, complicated math and physics equations and a number of different projects that really got me down.  I began to feel trapped, but in the end, optimism won-out. Thank God!

       The Friday of the second week, I decided to take in my first two pages of the comic I am working on.  I thought that it would lighten my spirit, and it really did the trick!  Two of my friends, who have high-speed internet have been following my blog all the way through from the time I first started it in the beginning of September, were quite impressed with what I had shown them now that they had got to see the actual page up close, but my other friend's reaction was the best of all.  He has dial-up and so has never really understood what my comic thing is about, but when he saw my drafts and finished works, his face at that instant I opened my carrying folder was priceless!  He sat the silent with wide eyes for a couple of moments, then all he could do was sit swear to himself silently.  (Damn that's good!!!)

       [Yeah, they all thought it was pretty professional.]  

       At that moment, I began to regain my willpower.  I was so ecstatic when a couple of the girls sitting at the other corner of the room whispered across, asking if they could have a look at it after the class was done (because this was at the beginning of third-period history, but I just couldn't help myself.)  They loved my work to, and said that they were really impressed.  I don't care if my friends thought I was "picking up," I was happy.

       There was tons done that weekend to improve myself.  I found myself being quite social at the grocery store, striking up a conversation with some people that I knew from school.  (I love how people actually look to talk with me now. If it were last year, there just would have been no way.)  As if it were a sign from god, a fantastic double-rainbow appeared in the sky after a big rain storm we had that weekend.  I saw it as a sign of my achievements and my growth that week, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come after it...

*This story shall continue in my next post.

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Story of my 3DS: (Part 3) A Trip to Town!

     It was Thanksgiving Sunday (October 9th) when we decided to make a special trip into town to buy the 3DS.  Of course that wasn't the only reason that we went to town on a usually quiet and respectful holiday, my mother had forgotten something very important that she had left at the grocery store and couldn't wait until Tuesday to make sure that it was safe.  It somehow didn't feel like a typical Thanksgiving to me this year, but it is probably because my sister wasn't home to have dinner at my grandmother's this time around.

     We spent a while searching around for the right place to but the thing, but in the end, we figured EB Games was our best bet.  I was a little worried that they might not of had the one in red because Staples didn't have any left when my mother checked, perhaps they just didn't have any in stock, but it turned out that EB Games did and I was very glad.
     I bought the system myself while my dad was out in the car.  I had told him that I was just going in to check to see if they had it in red, but where they had it rate there, I decided to buy it myself.  I personally think that it was better that way, for it is a great source of empowerment to know that you have gotten something so valuable to yourself on your own.  The only thing was, I was 25 cents short!  (Apparently I had miscalculated the cost before I left the house, but you have to admit, I was pretty close.)  I stood there half-embarrassed for a couple of moments while I witnessed the numbers ringing through.  "Umm... I don't quite have enough" were the only words I could manage to say.  Needless to say, I was a little nervous.  My next words were "My parents are just outside, do you mind?"
     I was lucky that the cashier was good humored and only grind at me when I said this.  "No, not at all!" was his response.  It only then occurred to me as I walk out the door, I have no idea where dad parked the car!  I managed to somehow spot our vehicle out and brisk-fully made my way toward it.  "You got a quarter?... Thanks!"  My father had the window rolled down, so the process went fairly smooth.  Only a couple of moments latter was I back in the car with my long awaited prize resting on my lap.  Inside, I was as glee as a hunter after getting their first catch of the season.  Success! 

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3DS: Progress? (Part 2)

I am a lot better today, and am feeling generous enough to give you Part 2 of my ongoing story about my quest in obtaining the 3DS.  Enjoy!
___________
And so, the inquiring of my parents began.  I say inquiring with a purpose, because, unlike most children, I do not interrogate my parents when there is something I am asking of them.  For me, that is far too bold and way out of my style.  I merely mention in to them, you know, as a simple passing thought, one that just crossed my mind.  I rarely ever want something so bad that I will ask for it, but I guess the 3DS was pretty high up there on my list.
When it gets to this point, I usually go out and get the thing myself, but I really wanted my parents to know what it was I was purchasing before I did.  And so, after a quick visit to the Nintendo's main website, and a couple of videos shown to them on YouTube, my parents were convinced that it would be a good buy and that it was indeed time to upgrade from my graying DS lite.

Over the past few months and after carefully thought sorting and planing, I have managed to accumulate a hefty stack of video games that I see little point in keeping and need to pass on.  I think I would feel much better if I knew they were in the hands of some little child who actually had the time to play them.  Most of them are DS games that I sorta' bought on impulse, the rest are for the Game Cube and two-three are for the Wii.
Also, being the frugal Canadian that I am, I collect Canadian Tire money form my parents every time they buy something from the hardware store.  (If you are American and don't know what Tire money money is, you should! Because it's Canada's official currency, don't you know?... eh, I can't even attempt to be funny tonight for some odd reason.)  Over time, the wad of CT money I possessed had grown to the point where it almost reached the full size and circumference of the cylindrical case I had stored it in.  My father, remembering this, decided to strike up a deal with me, a trade; 'all the money in that jar, for its actual worth in cash' my father said.  He was planning on buying a small saw from Canadian Tire some time soon, and he really wanted to see me get that game system.  Sadly though, CT money is hard to judge.  It comes in frequency ranging from 5cents to 2dollars, and all of them in bills!  It makes you think that you have more money than you actually do, and that seemed to be the case with dad.  I counted:

     ($3.50 worth in 50cents, $1 in 1dollars, $3.00 in 25cents, $5.60 in 10cents and $1.35 in 5cents.)

I was totaling all of this up while sitting on my stair steps, and by the time I was finished, a good three rows were covered in various sheets of coloured paper, all arranged in their individual piles based on value alone.
All of this, and only $14.45 ?
My father, being very generous as he is, still gave me twenty dollars for the little amount that I gave him.  I protested, saying that he should not have to give me more than I gave him, but there was just no chance in me ever swaying him any other way.

--------
Part 3- Coming your way this weekend!


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3DS: Now that's Progress?

Last week had really been a rocky week.  I had kept coming down hard on myself for being so hesitant with getting work done and I almost felt as though I wasn't the one in control.
"Control" had been the central thing I was trying to achieve this past summer.  Control of myself and my life.
 Telling myself "no more taking the back seat", that kind of thing, you know? And I had actually managed to reach my goal of self control by the end of the summer, but this week, it had somehow started to creep back up on me.  (Although not to the full extent that it had been before.)

I guess that the whole thing started on Thanksgiving weekend, when the final plans for one of my projects came into play.  I'm not talking about my comic project here, this is more of an example of a life project,and something that I had been readying myself for since the summer.  I had decide that I wanted to purchase a 3DS, and not just any kind of a 3DS, I had my eyes set on the sleek, new flame red 3DS, and in my opinion, the good kind; and so, I did.
My first interest in Nintendo's latest hardware peeked the moment it was announced.  Being the HUGE Nintendo fan I am (and a bit of a nerd), I was watching the live-streamed video of that years E3 conference via the internet when Nintendo made its first announced step into the world of 3D gaming, and I have to say, my jaw dropped when I heard the big news.  The first thought that ran through my head after that started me laughing inside.  Seeing the 3DS brought me back only but a couple of months earlier to when I was having a conversation with my friends about the controversy that had begun to spread about the existence of a new portable gaming console, shortly after the release of the Nintendo DSi.  I could remember bits of the conversation where I said "How could Nintendo possibly go any higher? What more can they add to gaming than cameras?" and we all agreed that Nintendo was stalling time by just releasing a bigger version of the DSi in order to satisfy their consumers with a new product.
One of my friends, who is a big PlayStation fan by the way, and is by no-means caught up in the whole Nintendo fandom realm of gaming, had jokingly said "What next, gaming in the 3rd dimension?" and we all laughed at such a ludicrous idea.  "What would that even be called? the 3DS?" "No way, man! How would that even be possible?" ...It was as though we thought the whole thing up ourselves, and the first words from my lips as I sat at my computer watching Mr. Iwata speak, was "How is this even possible...?" the same words spoken by my friends a few months back.  Crazy, right?
(Did I just get goosebumps?  I think I just got goosebumps?)
...
Sorry guys for not posting anything in a while.  I know that technically they say that it isn't very professional to inform everyone that you are sorry for not posting anything because it only annoys your viewers, but I got to say, I really am sorry.  If not to you, than at least to myself.

As I watch this blog post grow and morph, I see it becoming a longer story than what I had anticipated.  So, seeing how it is as lengthy as it is, I have made the decision to break it up into a couple of posts that will appear on my blog spanning the period of the next 7-8days.
This has really been a rotten couple week for me, my apologies for not being so active and cheerful as I usually am.

Part 2 coming soon!~

Next

Summer Falls

     I can't believe the change in the colours of the leaves this week here in Atlantic Canada! (Yes, and I do mean colours and not colors; and for all of my American viewers out there, the proper Canadian spelling for the word is actually that.)  It really is an eventful thing when the leaves begin to change, isn't it?  I think that I would really miss it if I were living someplace else in the world where the changing of the seasons did not include the bright yellows, the vibrant oranges and the deep reds that cover the landscape every fall.

    On top of the lovely scenery that we had this weekend, we were also blessed with fine weather.  Temperature in the twenties for Thanksgiving?! What kind of trick of the senses is this?  In any case, this presented me with the perfect opportunity to get some good sketching done; and so I did:

     For this one I hauled a folding lawn chair across our back yard and plopped it down so that it was facing the field and the forest behind my house.  I was actually a little saddened at first with the way how this one turned-out after I looked at how it appeared on the computer screen after I had scanned it, but now that I see it miniaturized in my post, I don't feel as bad about it and am actually quite content.
     When I sketch, often times the pencil marks are so light that a great deal of them don't get picked up by the scanner.  This is an example where that kind of thing happens to the image, but a simple change in the images resolution may just do the trick.

     A funny thing happened while I was making this picture, my dog, who is sometimes at my side when I am doing these kind of drawings, suddenly got the notion that it would be a good Idea to sniff-out the largest pile of animal droppings in the field... and ROLL IN IT!!!!! Yipes!  Yeah, I know, hilarious... but it wasn't for me at the time.  It still cracks me up a little when I picture myself sitting peacefully in my lawn chair, thinking about how nice of a day it was, when all of a sudden... zoom!  She didn't even gave me enough time to grab her before she began diving her way into it. (I swear it was large enough for her to do the back stroke through it!)
    Chloe is a small dog, so it didn't take much for her to make it seen as though she were in a state of complete and total mess, and she wasn't aloud back inside of the house for a while, or at least until she was cleaned.  My father and I gave her a bath, which is a routine thing for us now on the occasions that we let the dog run around the yard without the use of her tether.  But, man! Was she ever smelly!

     I had a good thanksgiving though, did you?  I managed to keep myself busy with all of the family-visiting, trips to town and whatnot, but I wish I could say the same about my comic.  I am a little stalled at the moment, that is not to say that nothing is getting done to it (I have worked out much of the plots beyond the pre-story legend that I am publishing to the internet now), but I usually have a page readily available to work on in the evenings after I come home from school.  This week so far, no such page exists and I feel as though a massive void of discomfort has been added to my day.  I should now make an initiative to empty that void of all its stresses and fill it full of the thing I feel most good about doing rate now, my comic.
_
*Just a little side-note, here.  Although most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the forth Thursday in November, us Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different date, the second Monday in October!  Neat hun?  I think that it has something to do with fact that Canada is further away from the equator than the United States, and thus the harvest are more earlier in the year.
When I think of November, I don't picture pumpkins and scarecrows.  For me, and many other Canadians, November means freshly fallen snow and the first taste of winter.

I sometimes find it interesting how the slight distance in our surroundings can change the way that we perceive common things in the world...

Cucumber Alive

This past Monday, I thought I would take a break from my usual work; something that I like to do often.  It keeps my ideas feeling fresh, and helps to break units of time into comprehensible dates through my artwork.  (I can remember when I had drawn an image, better that I can with just the date alone.)  It was after I had just eaten supper, and 20 minutes gave me this:

I always enjoy doing still-life and scenery work. Who knows, you may even see me use this as reference later in my comic for when I go to do foliage...

There's kind of a story behind this as to why one of the cucumber plants, shown here, is dead and the other alive.  It is my fathers doing.  My mother said jokingly, that 'he couldn't have killed it better if he had strapped it to a pair of skis and sent it over the side of Mt.Washington', which is practically what he did when he left them on top of the slanted lid of our gardening tools' wooden storage box.  Haha! (didn't see that one coming now did we?)

As I was thinking of a title for this blog post, I couldn't help but think of that one show from my childhood, Mummies Alive, I think it was called... Gosh I miss those days when cartoons were the center of my Saturday morning rituals.  Now I can't even find the time to sit and watch even half of the ones that appear on television, nor do I even seem to want to.  I mean, some of the modern-day cartoons' pacing is terrible!  Not to say that I myself could do any better, but I would give the pacing a serious thought.  It feels as though the lead writers and story-board artists are trying to cram too much into a short, 15min episode.  It's nuts!  Even Sponge Bob has fallen ill to this new trend, don't you find?  Ah, what do I know anyway?  It's probably just my change in prospective, that's all.  I am no longer looking it over from a child's point of view, but as the view of someone who spends the vast majority of his time devoted to art.  ...I started to sound like my own grandfather there for a second.  phwoo! wouldn't want that, now, would we?!

...Bakugan is all the rage now a days, isn't it?  Man, I really need to get with the times!

Edit: Oops! So sorry guys!  I have just been informed by my mother that the plant in the second picture, titled 'alive', is actually a strawberry bush and not a thing of cucumbers.  I hope that I haven't offended anyone who is particularly sensitive about their plants... Wait? WHA-?! :S (confused face)